STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A former Richmond resident who gambled away more than $3 million of his investors' hard-earned cash at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut lost big-time Wednesday at his sentencing.

District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis sentenced Aleksander Efrosman, 51, to nearly 16 years in prison and ordered him to pay about $4 million in restitution, prosecutors said.

Authorities said Efrosman cheated over 100 investors of more than $5 million in a stock and foreign currency exchange investment scam.

Efrosman, who was extradited from Poland to face justice here, had pleaded guilty in October of 2012 to wire fraud, said prosecutors.

"This case proves the old adage: 'You can run, but you cannot hide,'" said Loretta E. Lynch, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, in a statement. "Aleksander Efrosman stole over $5 million from unsuspecting investors and fled the country, then engaged in a globetrotting effort to escape justice. Today, Efrosman has finally been held to account for his betrayal of his clients' trust."

Ms. Lynch thanked the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service for their help in the case.

The scheme ran from January 2004 through June 2005, prosecutors said.

Efrosman, also known as Alex Besser and Alexander Efrosman, styled himself president of AJR Capital Inc. and owner of Century Maxim Fund Inc. The companies, incorporated in 2003 and 2002, respectively, have since been dissolved, according to online records of the New York Department of State.

Efrosman ran AJR out of his Staten Island home, which sources said he is believed to have rented, on St. George Road in Richmond. AJR also had an office in East Hanover, N.J., while Century Maxim's office was in Brooklyn, said prosecutors.

AJR purported to invest in the foreign currency exchange market; however, it was not registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said court papers. Century Maxim, a purported stock trader, wasn't registered with the National Association of Securities Dealers, court documents state.

Efrosman perpetuated the ruse by trumping up his "investments" to clients, said authorities.

He falsely claimed to have generated foreign currency exchange trading profits significantly above 10 percent annually, said prosecutors. He also lied that clients' investments would be protected by a "stop-loss" mechanism, authorities said. It allegedly ensured that no trade lost more than 3 percent.

Efrosman gambled $3 million at Foxwoods and also used clients' funds to pay personal expenses for himself and his family, said court papers.

He fled the country in 2005 with millions of dollars of investors' funds. He went to Cozumel, Mexico, then to Panama and finally to Poland, said authorities. There, he assumed the identity of "Mikhail Grosman," using a high-quality fraudulent Russian passport, officials said.

But federal authorities, with help from law enforcement in several Eastern European countries, traced Efrosman to Krakow, Poland, and arrested him in May 2010, authorities said.

In pre-sentence filings, Efrosman's lawyer, Michael K. Schneider of Manhattan, sought a prison term between 97 and 121 months for his client.

He said his Efrosman was bedeviled by gambling and drinking.

"The government's contention that Mr. Efrosman 'used a substantial portion of the fraud proceeds to support himself and his family' after he left the United States is unsubstantiated," wrote Schneider. "The hard truth for Mr. Efrosman is that as fast as AJR and Century Maxim took in money, he spent it, mostly on vices. He recognizes there is little redeeming in that story, but he looks forward to trying to redeem himself day by day."

Advance records show Efrosman has previously run afoul of the law.

In 1997, he was indicted on fraud charges, also related to foreign currency exchange trading. He fled the country but was extradited from France to stand trial. In November 2000, he pleaded guilty to 19 counts of mail and wire fraud and was sentenced to three years in prison